A state grand jury has recommended that Kathleen G. Kane be charged with perjury and other crimes in connection with her office’s disclosure of details about the secret investigation of a Philadelphia civil rights leader.

Nowhere has the battle been more intense over the last year than in Louisiana, where groups aligned with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and major pharmaceutical companies and the business community teamed up to push the State Legislature to crack down on the hiring of outside lawyers by the attorney general.

Patrick C. Lynch, a former attorney general of Rhode Island, was hired by three plaintiffs’ firms to recruit state attorneys general to urge the United States Supreme Court not to put new limits on securities fraud litigation, which the contingency firms often handle for state attorneys general.